Awards: Selected Project for our winning submission of Architect of the Year Award 2014

The
regeneration of the Kings Crescent Estate in Stoke Newington, Hackney, aims to restore
community pride by renovating existing estate buildings, creating new buildings
where unpopular high-rise buildings were demolished in the late 1990s and
reimagining the landscape. The project forms a pivotal piece of the wider London Borough of Hackney estate programme, which the practice has been instrumental
in developing over the past 10 years.

The estate lies on the western edge of Hackney, between Clissold Park and the broad, leafy Victorian streets of Highbury. By far the biggest challenge facing the London Borough of Hackney was how to engage and consult with an estate community that was disillusioned and disengaged after 18 years of failed proposals. In 2000, approximately a half of the estate was demolished, leaving the community living around a hoarded-off wasteland of rubble at the heart of the estate. Later attempts to redevelop in 2007 and 2011 failed.

We
were appointed in September 2013 following a competition to masterplan and
design the new housing and set about creating a viable but ambitious scheme that
put engagement with the Residents Association and wider estate population at
the heart of the design process. Through regular steering group meetings and
public consultation events, the residents were involved from the site-wide
strategy and planning of new streets right through to the internal
specification of the new homes.

We developed a masterplan of 750 homes, which involves the refurbishment of 200+ existing homes, the creation of 500 new homes and a new landscape and public realm strategy that reconnects the estate to its surroundings. From the outset, our approach was to seek to reintegrate the estate with its surrounding townscape of Victorian streets and public spaces.

The
original design for the estate was completed in 1971. Ground-floor garages and
long balconies with multiple entry points made the estate maze-like and hard to navigate which was compounded by the arrangement of existing buildings.

These issues are
being addressed through the intensive refurbishment strategy. Ground-floor garages are being
converted to homes, reconnecting the estate to the surrounding streets and
addressing the poorly defined public spaces that had previously lacked passive
surveillance. With the division of the long corridors, entry sequences are
being provided that are more secure and create well-defined areas in which
neighbours can socialise.

A
series of robust courtyard blocks combine existing and proposed buildings, as
well as well-defined and overlooked streets and public spaces connected through
the site. It was critical to ensure the new buildings responded to the original
retained blocks and configured to create shared gardens for existing and new
residents.

A
fundamental part of the scheme are the streets and open spaces, where
Karakusevic Carson Architects worked with Muf architecture/art. A central playstreet running east to west provides a new, legible connection between Islington and Clissold Park.

An
existing community garden is to be maintained and enhanced, and pockets of
informal play throughout the scheme will encourage children and families to
reclaim and enjoy the landscape. New public uses have been designed to cater
for both the existing and emerging communities and to improve the experience of
the public realm.

The
masterplan was granted planning approval in 2013 alongside the design for the
first two phases of new and refurbished homes, which were completed in 2017. Karakusevic Carson Architects and Henley
Halebrown are now progressing on the detailed design for the next phases.